Life Skill – Perseverance and Digging a Little Deeper

They say some pretty important life skills can be learned from classic fairy stories and that old fables have more than the odd golden nugget of truth in them – I have to admit I SO agree.

I’m a big kid at heart and having kids myself provides me with top excuses to pamper my inner child. One such excuse came my way when the kid’s tempted me to watch Disney’s The Princess and the Frog with them the other day.

Apart from a great story, this film has catchy, feet tapping and butt-waggling music in it, one of which was Dig a Little Deeper. This song really got me to thinking about what a wonderful life skill this simple film was teaching my children – PERSEVERANCE.

Giving up in life is so easy. Far too many people today lack steadfastness. They lack the CANDo get-up and go-go to keep going with things when faced with difficulties or delays in achieving success – “digging a little deeper” for want of a better, more catchy, way of putting it.

I’ve been banging on a bit of late about the Inner Imp Self-Discipline and how important it is for this guy to turn up for work when we need him. Well, it’s all very well Self-Discipline turning up but if his PERSEVERANCE life skills aren’t up to scratch, he’s gonna bog-off home again the minute things get tough.

So, how can we keep going; persevere to achieve the things we want to? Here’s a little CANDo trick.

DON’T STOP when you want to.

It really is as easy as that.

If you’re working out and think, I’ve had enough, DON’T STOP. Keep going for a few minutes longer.

If you’re on a diet and tempted by a cake, DON’T STOP dieting and eat cake.

If your kids are wearing you down and you’re tired of patiently explaining or answering the “Why does..?” “Why is..?” “Why should…?”, DON’T STOP, dig a little deeper and patiently keep going.

If you’re tempted to give up looking for a better job, saving for something or working towards a goal/dream you have, DON’T STOP.

“If things get difficult, the secret to success is to dig a little deeper and keep going” – you’re probably much nearer a breakthrough than you realise.

That’s the trick and here are CANDo’s get-up and go-go steps to perking up your perseverance life skills.

Commit – Get a goal, make your commit and then commit to do whatever you’ve set out to do.

Get-Up and Go-Go – Talk is just talk. Get-up and get-going towards success by DOING. Break your goal/dream down into a list of achievable activities that will help you achieve it and then make a start on doing these activities NOW! And DON’T STOP.

If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It – Keep going with what’s working for you if it’s moving you forward. You don’t always need master a different skill, wait until this/that happens, try a better way… Often, simply having your Inner Imp Self-Discipline make you keep repeating and practicing what’s working is what drives you slowly towards success.

Dig a Little Deeper – when things get tough, dig a little deeper. THAT is one of the secrets to success.